Help Frequently Asked Questions

It is important to us to know whether you’re satisfied with the Toolkit and how it works. We hope to make your experience with BIMBY as rewarding as possible, and greatly value your feedback, comments, and suggestions.

If you’d like to get in touch with us for assistance, please contact the BIMBY support team via the support page.

All enquiries are dealt with seriously and impartially, and will be responded to promptly. We aim to respond to all e-mail enquiries within three working days. Please note, if you have a complex complaint it may take longer to resolve, in which case we’ll keep you informed of our progress.

We’ve all heard of the saying, ‘NIMBY’, or ‘Not-In-My-Backyard.’ At the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community we’ve engaged with over a hundred local communities in housing projects across the UK, and we feel the term NIMBY doesn’t quite paint the full picture. Faced with a housing crisis that touches every segment of society, the drastic need for more housing is transforming NIMBY attitudes. People are ever more accepting of housing developments on their doorstep, but under the condition that building is well designed, well integrated, and well appreciated by the local community.

We’ve created BIMBY to help facilitate this culture change. BIMBY stands for Beauty-In-My-Back-Yard, and it’s there to empower communities to get involved in the decision-making process when it comes to housing in their local region.

BIMBY is an online toolkit from the Prince’s Foundation that supports community groups to tell planners and developers what they think Beauty-In-My-Back-Yard looks like. It empowers people to take part in the planning process in a positive way.

The toolkit is an easy to use website which guides groups through a series of workshops to create their own unique manual. A BIMBY manual formalises what the community thinks is Beauty In My Back Yard in a format that developers and planners will understand.

The toolkit is an easy to use website which guides groups through a series of workshops to create their own unique manual. A BIMBY manual formalises what the community thinks is Beauty In My Back Yard in a format that developers and planners will understand.

The BIMBY Toolkit is an online tool that provides communities with the tool set to create a bespoke local housing manual for their area

The Toolkit is made up of three workshops. Each workshop has three activities. To complete the Toolkit, you will need to hold each of these workshops, inviting members of your local community to collect and share information about your neighbourhood, including photos of existing houses you like, and expressing what you do and don’t like about your local area.

You will then upload the information you gather to the Toolkit using a series of easy to use forms that compiles the content into a bespoke local housing manual for your area.

Once you’ve completed the Toolkit, the information you’ve uploaded will be automatically inserted into the BIMBY Manual. We’ve designed the Manual so it best presents the information you’ve gathered in a manner that local authorities and developers will respond to.

You’ll be able to print your Manual, and submit it to local authorities, with the overall objective to see it inserted into the planning system. We show you how to do this in the Adoption section of the Toolkit.

For anyone who wants to see new development in their area that is well designed and integrates with the surrounding area. We expect it’s going to be community groups such as Neighbourhood Forums that use it.

You can have a look round the website without having to register but if you want to get going on the workshops, you will have to register an account. It’s quick and easy and just asks for a few details.

Under no circumstances will you have to pay to use the Toolkit.

Every workshop has a section at the end where you will be guided through how to upload your content. You will be prompted to do this as you work through the toolkit.

As long as you have your content – so the write ups or pictures generated by the workshops – on your computer, you will be able to upload them. So you need your content in a digital format. You’ll be able to edit your workshop content through the Edit link on the dashboard.

It will depend on how often the people can be brought together to meet. But assuming you can meet every weekend, you’d be looking at around 4 weeks at a minimum. Unless there is an urgent external deadline which could impact on this, then you can take as long as you need it. It’s important that the content really is what your community wants so you should take the time to make sure you’re fully happy with it.

We aim to transform people’s lives by building enduring & harmonious communities. We do this by educating people, enabling projects and championing our principles.

The Foundation believes that sustainably planned, built and maintained communities improve the quality of life of everyone who is part of them. They help us to both live better at a local level and start dealing with the broader challenges of urbanisation and climate change.

We support people to plan the future of their community, to learn the skills they need to build sustainably and to share the results as examples of best practice in urban design, architecture, planning and construction.

We would like to know if you face a technical issue with BIMBY that needs fixing.

You can report problems to the BIMBY team via the support page.

All enquiries are dealt with seriously and impartially, and are responded to promptly. We aim to respond to all e-mail enquiries within three working days. Complaints that are more complex may take longer to resolve, in which case we’ll keep you informed of our progress.